Showing posts with label imigrants. Show all posts
Showing posts with label imigrants. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

As Feds Plan to Cut Surveillance at Border, Texas Officials Demand Explanation, by Julián Aguilar

www.texastribune.org

Enlarge Photo by Eric Gay / AP Photo

A Customs and Border Protection vehicle patrols on the Texas border near the Rio Grande, Thursday, July 24, 2014, in Mission, Texas. Texas is spending $1.3 million a week for a bigger DPS presence along the border.

Gov. Greg Abbott and U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Laredo Democrat, pressed the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Monday to explain why the agency plans to reduce its aerial surveillance on the Texas-Mexico border.

In a letter to DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson, the lawmakers said the cut to a requested 3,850 hours of aerial detection and monitoring in 2016 amounts to 50 percent less coverage than recent years.

“Given the recent surge of migrants from Central America and Cuba along the southern border, we believe DHS should request more surveillance and security resources, not fewer,” Abbott and Cuellar wrote in a letter.

The pair also reminded Johnson that in September, Abbott’s office askedthe DHS for more aerial resources and U.S. Border Patrol agents but that the request was never acknowledged.

A DHS spokesperson said the agency would respond "directly" to the governor and the congressman. 

Monday’s request comes as CBP is reporting a new surge in the number of undocumented immigrants crossing the Rio Grande. From October to December of 2015, about 10,560 unaccompanied minors entered Texas illegally through the Rio Grande Valley sector of the U.S. Border Patrol. That marks a 115 percent increase over the same time frame in 2014. The amount of family units, defined as at least one child and adult guardian or parent, has increased by 170 percent to 14,336 in the Rio Grande Valley.

The El Paso sector also saw 1,030 unaccompanied minors, an increase of almost 300 percent.

In Monday’s letter, the pair also requested a detailed breakdown of how the DHS determined the reduction in aerial surveillance was warranted and information on how staffing and operation levels would be affected.

While Abbott has spoken extensively about illegal immigration from Mexico and Central America, the letter marked the first time Abbott has referenced a recent surge of Cubans coming into Texas. 

Abbott visited the island nation last year to explore expanding trade between Cuba and Texas. During that trip, he spoke about the current trade embargo but not the migrant issue.

During the 2015 fiscal year, about 28,400 Cubans entered Texas through U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Laredo field office, which extends from Del Rio to Brownsville. That’s compared to about 15,600 in 2014.

The surge came after the Obama administration announced in 2014 its plans to re-establish ties with Cuba, leaving many Cubans fearing they will lose a special designation that allows them to apply for legal residency status, or a “green card,” after living in the country for a year. Cuellar and U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, have called for the repeal of that designation.

COMMENTS

Thursday, December 31, 2015

US preps order for up to 34 MILLION 'green cards' and work permits

www.dailymail.co.uk

An online draft proposal from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services says it will look for a vendor to supply the blank cardsAt least 4 million per year for five years, including a possible 9 million in the early goingDocument says the move is 'to support possible future immigration reform initiative requirements'Obama has pledged to unilaterally change US immigration policy this year, but recently pushed back his timetable until after November 4 elections

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services plans to seek a vendor to produce as many as 34 million blank work permits and 'green cards' – the paperwork that authorizes immigrants to live and work in the United States – as the White House prepares to issue an executive order after the Nov. 4 midterm elections.

According to a draft solicitation published online, the government agency will look for a company that can produce a minimum 4 million cards per year for five years, and 9 million in the early stages.  

President Barack Obama has pledged that he will make a move on immigration reform this year. His original timetable called for a decision by the end of the summer. 

Republicans have decried the plan as an 'amnesty' for millions of illegal immigrants, including hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied minors who have come across the U.S.-Mexico border this year.

SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO AND THE DOCUMENTS

'#Not1More': An immigration activist heckled President Barack Obama on Sunday as he spoke during a campaign event for Democratic Maryland gubernatorial candidate Anthony Brown

Along with its solicitation for blank green cards and work permits, USCIS published images showing what the finished cards will look like

A draft RFP – a Request For Proposal – is typically published in advance so government contractors can prepare to submit their bids when the final version is published. 

The draft came complete with photos of what the finished cards will look like. 

Obama's high numbers of illegal immigration 'removals' – what used to be called 'deportation' – has earned him the nickname 'deportation president,' but most of those ejected border-crossers never get to the interior of the U.S.

Still, activists have protested his policies, including some who heckle his speeches. One yelled at him Sunday in the middle of a campaign stump speech supporting Democratic Maryland gubernatorial candidate Anthony Brown.

A USCIS official told MailOnline on Monday that the draft was published 'in case the president makes the move we think he will,' but added that the agency's Document Management Division (DMD) is by no means committed to buying the materials.

A second official at the agency said the proposal was drafted as a contingency in case immigration reform legislation passes in Congress, not in anticipation of action from the White House.

Either way, the online draft explains that 'DMD requires card consumables for the production of USCIS' Permanent Resident Card (PRC) and Employment Authorization Document (EAD) cards.'

'These cards and related consumables, when assembled, become highly specialized and secure identification documents.'

And a successful bid, the draft solicitation says, will be able to support a 'potential "surge" in PRC and EAD card demand for up to 9M (9 million) cards during the initial period of performance to support possible future immigration reform initiative requirements.' 

Advocates for Mexican and Central American immigrants have lambasted Obama for deporting illegal aliens even though the numbers are down sharply. This Sept. 8 protest in front of the White House featured a crying young boy (left) whose father was deported

Obama delayed his immigration action until after the midterm congressional election to avoid alienating law-and-order voters, but can afford to frustrate illegal imigrants – who can't legally cast ballots 

Former State Department foreign service officer Jessica Vaughan, now an immigration expert at the Center for Immigration Studies, told Breitbart.comthat the RFP 'seems to indicate that the president is contemplating an enormous executive action that is even more expansive than the plan that Congress rejected in the 'Gang of Eight' bill.'

That legislation, which passed in the U.S. Senate last year only to be stalled in the House of Representatives, was a broad reboot of American immigration policy that won support from a handful of Republicans.

In included a provision to provide a pathway to citizenship for so-called 'dreamers' – people living in the country illegally who were brought to Americans as children before June 15, 2007. 

Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which he ultimately enacted without congressional support, uses the EAD cards as part of its implementation. 

USCIS says it processed 862,000 EADs overall between January and June of this year.

But 'the guaranteed minimum for each ordering period is 4,000,000 cards,' according to the draft RFP.

'The estimated maximum for the entire contract is 34,000,000 cards.'

The company that ultimately wins the contract will also be required to store the blank cards until the government needs them.

COMMENTS

Friday, December 25, 2015

Donald Trump was on Twitter for Christmas to for a second day in a row take credit for reports that the Obama administration is planning an effort to deport illegal immigrants.


December 25, 2015 - 03:28 PM EST

Trump hits Twitter for Christmas

GETTY IMAGES

BY IAN SWANSON22102 SharesTWEET SHARE MORE

Donald Trump was on Twitter for Christmas to for a second day in a row take credit for reports that the Obama administration is planning an effort to deport illegal immigrants.

 

 

Trump has put illegal immigration at the center of his presidential campaign since announcing his White House bid in June.

Now, just more than a month before the Iowa caucuses, Trump is the clear favorite to win the GOP nomination.

He’s well ahead in polls of New Hampshire, which holds its GOP primary on Feb. 9.

First come the Iowa caucuses, where some polls have shown Trump falling behind Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).

Twitter has been a key part of Trump’s strategy for winning the Republican nomination.

He frequently uses the instant messaging platform to reach his more than 5 million followers, bypassing traditional media.

On Dec. 24, he unleashed a tweetstorm of criticism directed at Jeb Bush, Hillary Clinton and the news media.

News reports on Thursday said the Obama administration was planning immigration raids to deport some of the people from Central America who have entered the United States in recent years.

Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who are battling for the Democratic presidential nomination, were critical of the reports.

Trump, in contrast, took credit for the administration’s reported plans. He stated that the raids were a response to the pressure he has placed on the government.

Trump also tweeted about Bush, a favorite foil.

 

 

 

 

   


Donald Trump was on Twitter for Christmas to for a second day in a row take credit for reports that the Obama administration is planning an effort to deport illegal immigrants.

TheHill

  

BALLOT BOX

December 25, 2015 - 03:28 PM EST

Trump hits Twitter for Christmas

GETTY IMAGES

BY IAN SWANSON22102 SharesTWEET SHARE MORE

Donald Trump was on Twitter for Christmas to for a second day in a row take credit for reports that the Obama administration is planning an effort to deport illegal immigrants.

 

 

Trump has put illegal immigration at the center of his presidential campaign since announcing his White House bid in June.

Now, just more than a month before the Iowa caucuses, Trump is the clear favorite to win the GOP nomination.

He’s well ahead in polls of New Hampshire, which holds its GOP primary on Feb. 9.

First come the Iowa caucuses, where some polls have shown Trump falling behind Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).

Twitter has been a key part of Trump’s strategy for winning the Republican nomination.

He frequently uses the instant messaging platform to reach his more than 5 million followers, bypassing traditional media.

On Dec. 24, he unleashed a tweetstorm of criticism directed at Jeb Bush, Hillary Clinton and the news media.

News reports on Thursday said the Obama administration was planning immigration raids to deport some of the people from Central America who have entered the United States in recent years.

Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who are battling for the Democratic presidential nomination, were critical of the reports.

Trump, in contrast, took credit for the administration’s reported plans. He stated that the raids were a response to the pressure he has placed on the government.

Trump also tweeted about Bush, a favorite foil.

 

 

 

 

   

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Thursday, December 24, 2015

U.S. plans raids to deport families who surged across border

www.washingtonpost.com

The Department of Homeland Security has begun preparing for a series of raids that would target for deportation hundreds of families who have flocked to the United States since the start of last year, according to people familiar with the operation.

The nationwide campaign, to be carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents as soon as early January, would be the first large-scale effort to deport families who have fled violence in Central America, those familiar with the plan said. More than 100,000 families with both adults and children have made the journey across the southwest border since last year, though this migration has largely been overshadowed by a related surge of unaccompanied minors.

The ICE operation would target only adults and children who have already been ordered removed from the United States by an immigration judge, according to officials familiar with the undertaking, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because planning is ongoing and the operation has not been given final approval by DHS. The adults and children would be detained wherever they can be found and immediately deported. The number targeted is expected to be in the hundreds and possibly greater.

The proposed deportations have been controversial inside the Obama administration, which has been discussing them for several months. DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson has been pushing for the moves, according to those with knowledge of the debate, in part because of a new spike in the number of illegal immigrants in recent months. Experts say that the violence that was a key factor in driving people to flee Central America last year has surged again, with the homicide rate in El Salvador reaching its highest level in a generation. A drought in the region has also prompted departures.

The pressure for deportations has also mounted because of a recent court decision that ordered DHS to begin releasing families housed in detention centers.

Although Johnson has signaled publicly for months that Central American families not granted asylum would face deportation, the plan is likely to trigger renewed backlash from Latino groups and immigrant advocates, who have long accused the administration of overly harsh detention policies even as Republicans deride President Obama as soft on border security.

Advocates have not been briefed on the plans and on Wednesday expressed concern. They cited what they called flaws and abuses in the government’s treatment and legal processing of the families, many of whom are fleeing danger or persecution in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

“It would be an outrage if the administration subjected Central American families to even more aggressive enforcement tactics,” said Gregory Chen, director of advocacy for the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “This administration has never acknowledged the truth: that these families are refugees seeking asylum who should be given humanitarian protection rather than being detained or rounded up. When other countries are welcoming far more refugees, the U.S. should be ashamed for using jails and even contemplating large-scale deportation tactics.”

Groups that have called for stricter immigration limits said the raids are long overdue and remained skeptical about whether the scale would be large enough to deter future illegal immigration from Central America.

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies. “What share is this going to be?. . . It’s a drop in the bucket compared to the number they’ve admitted into the country. If you have photogenic raids on a few dozen illegal families and that’s the end of it, it’s just for show. It’s just a [public relations] thing, enforcement theater.”

Marsha Catron, a DHS spokeswoman, would not comment on any possible ICE operations but pointed out that Johnson “has consistently said our border is not open to illegal immigration, and if individuals come here illegally, do not qualify for asylum or other relief, and have final orders of removal, they will be sent back consistent with our laws and our values.”

The raids could become a flash point on the 2016 campaign trail, where GOP presidential contenders, including front-runner Donald Trump, have made calls for stricter border control a central issue. Trump’s rise has come as he has promised to deport all undocumented immigrants and bar entry to the United States for Muslim refugees in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif., policy prescriptions denounced by Democratic candidates, including Hillary Clinton.

The immigration issue has often bedeviled Obama, who came into office under pressure from supporters to end the George W. Bush administration’s post-Sept. 11, 2001, crackdown on illegal migrants. Instead, the administration increased deportations in its early years, drawing repeated fire from Latino groups and immigration advocates. Then, in summer 2014, came the surge of children flocking across the southwest border.

While most public attention focused on minors who were crossing the border alone, the number of children who came with a family member — known as “family units’’ in DHS parlance — also spiked dramatically.

With the government overwhelmed at first, many of the families were simply released and told to appear at later immigration court dates to determine if they would be granted asylum.

Some never showed up or had their asylum claims rejected and were ordered deported by immigration judges, officials familiar with the process said. That population is among those expected to be targeted in the upcoming raids, they said.

Immigrant rights advocates and legal experts say the families and minors were in many cases not granted adequate representation and were confused by the asylum procedures in court.

DHS, meanwhile, reacted to the surge by opening family detention centers, two in Texas and one in Pennsylvania. Those centers now house more than 1,700 people, DHS officials said Wednesday. But even as DHS officials have long vowed that the migrants will be treated humanely, their advocates have said conditions are crowded and inhumane in the centers, which often house women with children.

As the administration wrestled with how to handle the families, Johnson in November 2014 issued a set of new immigration enforcement priorities. Much of the attention focused on his public statements that undocumented immigrants who had been in the country for years should be integrated into society rather than deported. And Obama, on the same day, announced an executive action intended to shield up to 5 million illegal immigrants from deportation.

But Obama’s action has been blocked in the courts. And Johnson has also made clear that families, children and others who had illegally crossed the border recently and did not obtain asylum status — and anyone ordered deported starting on Jan. 1, 2014 — would be subject to removal.

DHS “will also continue to expedite, to the greatest extent possible, the removal of those who are not eligible for relief under our laws,’’ Johnson said in a September statement about the family detention centers. “We take seriously our obligation to secure our borders.’’

In August, a federal judge in California ordered the administration to begin releasing in October children and family members from the detention centers. The judge said DHS had violated a 1990s consent decree that said minors taken into custody, whether accompanied by an adult or not, had to be treated humanely and allowed to quickly contest their incarcerations.

The administration has said it is complying with the ruling, but it has also filed an appeal with a federal appeals court, and officials said the decision left them feeling hamstrung. “It doesn’t allow us to hold onto people, to detain them until we can deport them,’’ said one person familiar with the internal debate.

Then, in recent months, the flow of families crossing the border suddenly shot up again. The numbers of family units apprehended rose 173 percent in October and November, compared to the same period last year, according to DHS data analyzed by the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank.

The court decision and the sudden spike led to the decision to begin planning the upcoming raid, said officials familiar with the deliberations, who said DHS knows the deportations will be inflammatory but believes it must enforce the law.

COMMENTS

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Busloads of migrant children fleeing Central America continue arriving at Texas shelters

Listen To Military Veteran Talk Radio
Published December 22, 2015
A recent influx of migrant children—10,000 just within the last two months, compared to the 34,000 children who arrived the last fiscal year—has made temporary placement a priority.
ROCKWALL COUNTY, TEXAS –  Some 170 plus undocumented children from Central America will spend the holidays at Sabine Creek Ranch in Rockwall County, the second facility in north Texas to provide temporary shelter to the now hundreds of children in federal custody.
The 300-bed church camp located 30 miles east of downtown Dallas typically hosts sets of smiling youth groups. But for the next few weeks, the camp will house mostly boys and some girls, ages 12 to 17, primarily from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, as well as a team of support care workers including nursing staff, clinicians and security.
“We needed to bring additional facilities online,” said Andrea Helling, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The federal government works with temporary shelters in multiple states within 250 miles of the border. But a recent influx of migrant children—10,000 just within the last two months, compared to the 34,000 children who arrived the last fiscal year—has made temporary placement a priority.
“It’s a complex, crazy issue,” said Rockwall County Judge David Sweet, who emphasized that county resources were not being used to house the children.
Sweet and other local and federal officials toured the facility, including the on-site command center which has five large TV monitors that track movement into and out of the camps. It also logs all kinds of data, from who is suffering from headaches to who has head lice.
Sweet said county officials asked “a ton and ton of questions” of the BCFS Health and Human Services’ Emergency Management Division, the San Antonio-based nonprofit contracted to handle the migrant children.  
There’s no clear answer as to why so many children are suddenly arriving at the border, though a BCFS official implied that drug cartels are using the children to distract U.S. Border Patrol officers. BCFS has budgeted care costs at $428 per day, per child — though the official said the amount spent so far is under cost.
For the migrant children – many of whom trekked to the U.S./Mexico border within the last few couple of weeks – the bus ride down the two-lane highway in rural Texas is just another part of their long journey. Most will be placed with a relative within the next 21 days, an HHS official said, and will then proceed through the immigration process.
Those not placed will move to another camp. A campsite in Ellis County, 45 minutes south of Dallas, received about 500 kids in early December and a third campsite is expected to open in Somervell County later this month.
In Rockwall County, camp staff welcomes children who arrive in buses by clapping and saying “bienvenidos.”
During a media tour this week, media was prohibited from talking to the children. Groups of children could be seen playing basketball. They were watched over closely by camp counselors and security. Inside, a row of Disney princesses decorated one wall of the girls’ dormitory lined with bunkbeds. A brightly-lit cross anchored a section of a worship building-turned-medical facility.
In another building, a handful of children watched the Disney cartoon “Tangled.” The activities and special meals, including Christmas tamales, are ways camp directors Ed and Sarah Walker hope to provide an active and safe experience for the children, many of whom escaped gang violence and economic hardships.
But not everyone has welcomed them with open arms. Though the community has been largely supportive, according to the Walkers, there have been small protests.
U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, a Republican who represents the area, said he was taken aback that no one was notified in advance that immigrant children would be housed in the temporary shelters near them.
“There was no public meeting organized in advance locally, and no ability to protest the decision,” he said in a statement. “My office was notified two days ago and, at my insistence, local officials were subsequently notified.”
But that’s a stark contrast from places like Murrieta, California, a town that became so angry that immigrant children were being housed there that protesters stopped buses carrying migrants and chanted “Go back home!”
Most in Rockwall County are nonchalant about the immigrants arriving there. Local churches have even donated gifts for the children.
Victor Trevizo, who owns a car dealership about a mile from the church camp, said there’s no need for extra caution.
“I’m fine with it,” said Trevizo, a Mexican immigrant from Chihuahua who came to the U.S. when he was a teenager.
The camp doesn’t get many visitors in December and is often dependent on donations through the down season. But the arrival of the children – at $60 a day per kid to pay for housing and food – has helped pay for a much-needed roof for the dining hall.
“This was very unexpected,” said Walker, who is also the director of the Camp/Sport Leadership Degree program at Dallas Baptist University. “But if you get a call, and you can help, you do that.”
The Walkers purchased the 330 acres now home to Sabine Creek Ranch in 2003 and held a press conference at the gates of the ranch Monday while a herd of cattle looked on.
“These kids are in a completely difficult life situation,” said Sarah Walker, who feels a deep sense of compassion for children navigating a new country alone. “We know that what we’re doing is what’s right.”
Joanna Cattanach is a freelancer based in Dallas, Texas.
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